Facebook biz pages .. Are they worth it?

I’m Christine, and most of my connections that haven’t come from offline family and friends have come from Facebook.

👍😃😊😉😁✅

I have had a preference for Facebook, as it is where I have managed to build deeper connections and relationships with people due the personal sharing nature of it as a social media network.

A couple of years ago, I didn’t feel as comfortable with it, and although could straight away see the potential for building business relationships, I also saw that it was a long haul type of strategy …. meaning that this was only gonna really work for those who invest personally in their friends on Facebook. I struggled with sharing myself on Facebook and felt way more introverted than usual!!!

Socially I’m a listener, and an observer, so sharing myself directly was a jump out of my comfort zone 😱

… I had that added protection vibe too for my family and kids lives !! I quickly learned about privacy settings and the skill to operate different info so that different sets of people saw different things ( family pics for family etc) until I grew comfortable with a standard I now use public ( apart from content o share in particular forums/group)

I see all the time, people who flash around, posting lifestyle images, before and after images after using different products with clear intention to direct their audience to their business ….

Personally, I’ve always been drawn to more authentic measures, people who I can get to know outside of business. It helps me to connect them to their business and that helps me connect to their business!!! (I followed a lady once that promoted a minimalist lifestyle and via getting to know her on Facebook and blog I joined a challenge to jump off the ladder and create a simplistic life!!)

Trust, loyalty, connection and inspiration …. those are the things that surround any connection I have made on Facebook around business!

Of course I have made mistakes … Once I bought clothes straight from Facebook … They came from China looking like half the quality from the pictures and I learned my lesson fast!

When someone connects with me through my business for the first time, I direct them to my personal page straight away! If I cannot meet them personally, I will definately encourage phone call, Skype etc. and will give the person a chance to get a yes feeling from the interaction …

That way there is an open door for me to help / serve and provide value … even if it’s just a product I’m organizing a delivery for, if the interaction is personal it is more satisfying, and the customer will more readily seek my advise or support, this assists the transaction to become an authentic exchange between two people!!!

Facebook pages

I have a few for my different businesses Health .Art .Blog .

Facebook do not like us to directly sell from a personal profile … which I think is fair enough given how tacky it looks when I see a direct product placement or add from a personal page … I just get a NO feeling … It’s different however to read about a persons DAY at work, as it’s a personal connection /experience, and is helping me connect to that person, so I enjoy those posts of personal growth in business etc.

Shop!

Business / fan pages were set up for direct business interaction! They can also be used to attract people to a brand, and can contain lots of entertaining images and videos apart from sales or product info … a bit like a shop window to drawn attention in!!!

You can directly sell from a Facebook page, or ask someone to opt in by asking for their email address to get more info about product/service …. you can even pay for adds that will be shown to target audiences that you set up !!

It can all be a bit overwhelming!!!

I’ve had a bit of Facebook training, and played around with adds on Facebook … but honestly, the best engagement I get on my page comes from connections I’ve made personally … from two types of people.

1. From my fb friends and fans that see and like my content!

2. Business connections: those I network with as a part of different forum groups/ communities that have aspects of business in common and reciprocate support each other ( sometimes this leads to promoting each other’s businesses and buying directly from each other!)

Plus … There’s no limit to fans that can like and engage in your page, whereas there is a limit to your personal friends.

Recently I did a Facebook page 21 day challenge with a group of holistic therapists that was really quite grounded in this approach, promoting long term persistence consistency relationship building strategies that are congruent to the type of authentic business I am currently building

Ps: I have gained a lot of skills in promoting myself through video messages and outline the benefits of the light it up video marketing challenge, where i continue to learn and grow check it out ! http://bit.ly/IgniteWithNiamh

Thanks for reading, feel free to share and connect on Facebook if you haven’t already 😉